Arizona weekly citizen., 1887-09-17
DEATH ON THE GARR0TE.
A DREADFUL PICTURE OF CAPITAL
 PUNISHMENT IN SPAIN.


 How a Holiday Is { Celebrated in the Land of the omve-ThS Trepidation 2 with Which a Criminal Met His 2 Doom-
 Suddenly the crowd halts and a great silence falls. A close carriage, with ; blinds down, escorted by picket of civil : guards, slowly passes through the press. We can follow it without hurrying our selves.
 In little while the place of execution appears before me, thrOnged with a null titude swaying like tide, and up from the sea of heads emerges the white mast of the scaffOld-
 approach.
 Lying upon a stool, covered with a snow
 white cloth, is the garrOte itself-shim-
 mering like a crown of steel In little
 while the executiOner will attach it to a
 post against which the criminal is to be
 fastened. The final preparations con
 stunned considerable time, SO that l was
 well able to make leisurely examination of the sinister locality whither curiosity
 had drawn me for the purpose of studying
 the physiognOmy of the great pushing or squeezing crowd. As always, and in all places, the women were the most numer- Ous.
 Now there Is great movement around the scaffOld. The soldiers close their ranks and three men approach the scaf- fold. One of them ascends it. lt is the executiOner. He Is thin, low sized and looks about 40 years old. While waiting for his victim he keeps walking nervOusly to and fro with his hands behind his back and his head down. From time to time he stops and looks at the argolla the ''carrOte'') with a suspicious expression of countenance. Perhaps he is afraid of the power of resistance possessed by the oervical vertebre of Alvarez, and is there fore afraid of losing his bounty.
 THE DISMAL scAFFOLD.
 Noisy as it was a little while ago, the crowd now suddenly becomes silent. Some women are turning pale; and one can feel that a nervous excitement weighs upon the crowd. A low rumbling is heard. It is the black carriage that bears the condemned man. It stops at the foot of the scaffOld; and the criminal is soon painfully climbing the twelve high steps of the dismal scaffold, leaning on the arm of priest. Another priest preceGes him, K toward which the condemned man strives l tO turn his terror stricken face Alvarez | Ohva is not yet 2J years old; and it was believed that the savage energy he had | displayed in committing his crime, to- | gether with his vigorous youth, would | give him strength to face death. But | nothing of the kind is now shown by him; and really it was too much to expect of a man who knew his fate forty eight hours ago, and who, while listening to the fu- neral chants in the prison chapel, must have beheld all kinds of hideous visions passing before him.
 This rule of ObGging the condemned to listen during the two nights preceding his to an interminable series of prayers, requiens, De Profundis chants, uttered for the repOse of his soul by his fellow criminals, seems to me something atrOciOus; and I can see in it the last vestige of the ferOcious medieval mysti- cism of Spain, with all it's unconscious ,ruelty. As I stood on an elevation over looking the scaffOld, was able to observe iu the details of the last scene of the tragedy. The condemned man mechan- caAy yielded himself up to the executioner. The latter sat down at the foot of the post, with his back to it and then tied his hands and feet hard and fast. He did all his without hurrying himself in the least, md with all the dignified indifference which charaeterizes the Spanish function ny in the discharge of his duty. If the had lasted even a few seconds onger I believe l should have lost my ! 'wn self control could hear my heart ( humping in my breast. and every mo nent or two something like veil came C efore my eyes.
 THE IRON COLLAR.
 You could not even hear a whisper in V he crowd. While one of the priests ressed a crucifx to the coIOrless lips of he sufferer, another was muTmuring . 'ords of consolation and hope into his 0 ar. But the wretched man was not fl steninS. His expressiOnless face had h axen pallOr, and his eyes, as they wan O cred over the ocean of faces before him. O ready seemed dim with the dullness of is cath. VI He started considerably when the exc c itiOner placed the iron collar about his l h eek, and l observed his mouth contract. fc hen, however, white covering thrown Ter his features hid them from further 'ServatiOn- The executiOner then gave 70 or three turns of the screws connect
 with the instrument of death The 'ues UT tue neck crucked. long trem- n ing ran through the whole body, the sI ms twisted outward, the legs inward. fla lvarez Oiiva was dead 1t The priests took of their square caps, as th to salute the soul passing by. and the x, ecutioner concealed the covering that ht ncealed the dead mans face That face. SC lich had been so pallid a moment before. oh is now purple. The tumiiied tongue m Otruded from the mouth and the bloody sh es had spurted out of their sockets. The fs al had fallen slightly toward the right st builder, and the black miter, with white "a 'ss, that had been placed upon it, seemed cs out to tall off. ~S The crowd ebbed away silently. evi- ntly much affected, while two gen rmes with rifles mounted guard at the 't of the scaffOld, where the corpse was remain until evening. when the corDo- ion Ot female mOurners would escort if Ai the cemetery of executed criminals. ee ,h long. piercing cries of lamentation ID g ths Iu! yu! yu! of Arab women WI U York Star ru
 erl
 Not to Be Trusted. eN n old | VI